EAR COMMUNITY GROWING STRONG: Melissa Tumblin, flanked by daughters Ally , 3, right, and Hailey, 5, visits the Ear Community Website at their Broomfield home on Friday. Melissa Tumblin started Ear Community, a support organization for families dealing with Microtia and Atresia, after Ally was born with an underdeveloped right ear and ear canal. She recently received nonprofit status for the organization thanks to help from the Broomfield Community Foundation.
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DAVID R JENNINGS
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EAR COMMUNITY

To find out more about Ear Community and Microtia and Atresia, visit earcommunity.com, or visit Ear Community's Facebook page

Three years ago, Melissa Tumblin and her husband had never heard of Microtia and Atresia, the conditions that left their newborn daughter, Ally, with an underdeveloped right ear and ear canal.

Today, Broomfield resident Melissa Tumblin has answers. Lots of them. Enough answers to lead the Ear Community, an international support group and information clearinghouse that provides links to research, explains treatment options and provides a forum for families to ask questions and connect.

Ear Community recently hit a significant milestone when it gained nonprofit status with the help of the Broomfield Community Foundation. Ear Community is allowed to act as a 501c3 nonprofit organization under the temporary umbrella of the Broomfield Community Foundation until Ear Community officially gets federal tax ID number.

"I'm so grateful for their help," said Tumblin, who has been able to get legal and tax guidance from the Foundation in addition to nonprofit status.

Nonprofit status is critical to help raise money for Ear Community's ongoing education campaigns and future scholarships for families facing huge medical bills. It can take a year or more for organizations to gain nonprofit status, which is why the Broomfield Community Foundation stepped in to help as Tumblin waits for paperwork to be approved.

Karen Smith, the Foundation's executive director, said the board of directors heard about Tumblin's work with Ear Community and knew her work deserved support.

"They were impressed with her mission and passion," she said. "It's not just about what she wants to do, but what she has already accomplished on her own."

The past year has been busy for Tumblin, who travels extensively to raise awareness and connect people affected by Microtia and Atresia. The condition can cause deafness or hearing loss, and some people who have the condition have other birth defects that affect the bones in their face.

Tumblin hopes her work with Ear Community can bring her 3-year-old daughter, Ally, closer to a world more rich with sound.

Ally wears a hearing aid on a decorated headband, and also uses a radio hearing device while in school in order to better hear her teacher. She also follows the guidance of her older sister, Hailey.

Tumblin said Ally is finally getting old enough to understand that she hears things differently than other children. She calls her functioning ear her "open ear" and her underdeveloped ear her "closed ear" or "little ear."

While Tumblin tucked Ally into bed one night, Ally asked her mother a question.

"She asked me to open her other ear," she said.

Tumblin, who speaks at major industry and physicians' conferences, said raising her daughter put her in a unique position to help families.

"I can speak from my heart and my experiences," she said.

Tumblin works with surgeons and industry professionals to stay up to date on technology and treatments, often calling surgeons directly to ask for answers to parents' questions. She said she is constantly talking with parents who are worried, unsure or confused about their children's options for surgery or treatment.

In August, she spoke at a New Jersey medical conference sponsored by Oticon Medical, a major hearing aid manufacturer. Oticon, along with other hearing aid and medical device companies, helps sponsor Tumblin's nationwide summer picnics, which are another key piece of Ear Community's outreach.

The picnics "help to not only bring Microtia and Atresia families together so that they are not alone and can share experiences, but these picnics help educate them on all of their options where they are often all not brought up or mentioned in doctor appointments," she said.

At the picnics, parents get to meet plastic surgeons, audiologists and prosthetic experts face-to-face. Children get to meet others like them, and even try out different hearing aids on the market.

"It's amazing to see a child's face when they start to hear out of both ears for the first time. Some of them cry," she said. "It's so moving."

This year's summer picnics, which drew about 1,000 people, met in seven locations from Broomfield to Toronto to Yonkers, N.Y., to Webster, Texas.

Though picnic season is far away, Tumblin is already planning the next round of picnics for meet-ups in Spain, the United Kingdom and at home in the United States.

Tumblin also is hoping to grow her organization through donations. Money raised will help pay for future outreach events, scholarships for children with Microtia and Atresia, and donations to cover travel costs for families who need to travel for surgery.

Tumblin hopes to see the organization grow its reach in order to share information and resources, as well as heartfelt support.

"The entire organization is made up of individuals who hold Microtia and Atresia near and dear to their hearts, all from personal experience," she said.